Getting Started with C++ Audio Programming for Game Development

David Gouveia

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781849699099
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming in C++
• Index: Computer Science

In Detail

Audio plays a fundamental role in video games. From music to sound effects or dialogue, it helps to reinforce the experience, convey the mood, and give feedback to the player. Presently, many games have achieved commercial success by incorporating game sounds that have enhanced the user experience. You can achieve this in your games with the help of the FMOD library. This book provides you with a practical guide to implementing the FMOD toolkit in your games.

Getting Started with C++ Audio Programming for Game Developers is a quick and practical introduction to the most important audio programming topics that any game developer is expected to know. Whether you need to play only a few audio files or you intend to design a complex audio simulation, this book will help you get started enhancing your game with audio programs.

Getting Started with C++ Audio Programming for Game Developers covers a broad range of topics from loading and playing audio files to simulating sounds within a virtual environment and implementing interactive sounds that react to events in the game.

The book starts off with an explanation of the fundamental audio concepts, after which it proceeds to explain how to use the FMOD Ex library, how to implement a 3D audio simulation, how to use the FMOD Designer toolkit, and how best to work with multi-layered sounds with complex behaviors attached to them. The final part of the book deals with working with audio at a much lower level by manipulating audio data directly.

This book will provide you with a good foundation so that you can successfully implement audio into your games and begin pursuing other advanced topics in audio programming with confidence.

Approach

This book is a standard tutorial targeted at game developers which aims to help them incorporate audio programming techniques to enhance their gameplay experience.

Who this book is for

This book is perfect for C++ game developers who have no experience with audio programming and who would like a quick introduction to the most important topics required to integrate audio into a game.

Getting Started with C++ Audio Programming for Game Development

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Table of Contents

Getting Started with C++ Audio Programming for Game Development

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Audio Concepts

Sound waves

Analog and digital audio

Multi-channel audio

Audio file formats

Summary

2. Audio Playback

Understanding FMOD

Installing FMOD Ex Programmer's API

Creating and managing the audio system

Loading and streaming audio files

Playing sounds

Checking for errors

Project 1 – building a simple audio manager

Class definition

Initialization and destruction

Loading or streaming sounds

Playing sounds

A note about the code samples

Summary

3. Audio Control

The channel handle

Controlling the playback

Controlling the volume

Controlling the pitch

Controlling the panning

Grouping channels together

Controlling groups of channels

Project 2 – improving the audio manager

Class definition

Initialization and destruction

Loading songs and sound effects

Playing and stopping sound effects

Playing and stopping songs

Controlling the master volume of each category

Summary

4. 3D Audio

Positional audio

Positional audio in FMOD

Creating an audio source

Setting the audio source's position and velocity

Setting the audio source's direction

Setting the audio source's range

Setting the audio listener's properties

Integration with a game

Reverb

Reverb in FMOD

Creating a reverb object

Setting reverb properties

Setting reverb position and radius

Setting the default ambient reverb

Obstruction and occlusion

Obstruction and occlusion in FMOD

Effects

Effects in FMOD

Example 1 – time stretching

Example 2 – simple radio effect

Summary

5. Intelligent Audio

Audio files versus sound events

Introducing the FMOD Designer

Simple events

Examples of simple events

Avoiding repetitive sound effects

Creating a footsteps sound loop

Creating a breaking glass sound effect

Creating an ambient track of singing birds

Multi-track events

Examples of multi-track events

Creating an interactive footsteps sound loop

Simulating the sound of a car engine

Creating a complex ambient track of a forest

Interactive music

The vertical approach (re-orchestration)

The horizontal approach (re-sequencing)

Calling sound events from the game code

Summary

6. Low-level Audio

Representing audio data

Playing audio data

Loading a sound

Playing a sound

Pausing a sound

Looping a sound

Changing volume

Changing pitch

Changing panning

Mixing multiple sounds

Implementing a delay effect

Synthesizing a sound

Summary

Index

Getting Started with C++ Audio Programming for Game Development

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: August, 2013

Production Reference: 1190813

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84969-909-9

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Cover Image by Suresh Mogre (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

David Gouveia

Reviewers

Tomas Pettersson

Daniel Varela

Acquisition Editor

Edward Gordon

Commissioning Editor

Shreerang Deshpande

Technical Editors

Larissa Pinto

Nitee Shetty

Project Coordinator

Suraj Bist

Proofreader

Lesley Harrison

Indexer

Tejal Soni

Graphics

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Work

Melwyn D'sa

About the Author

David Gouveia is a Software Engineer and Game Developer from Portugal, Madeira Island. He recently finished his MSc in Computer Science, with a specialization in graphics and multimedia, and is currently working full-time as a game programmer for a local company. He runs an educational blog about game development and enjoys sharing his knowledge with the community whenever possible. His main interests in game development are graphics and audio programming. He also has a strong interest in music and synthesizers, having played the keyboard most of his life.

About the Reviewers

Tomas Pettersson is a creator of the freeware audio tools SFXR and Musagi.

Daniel Varela was born in Trebujena, Spain, in 1980. His strong passion for music and technology led him to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Sound and Image Engineering from the University of Málaga, Spain, in 2004.

From very early on in his education, he focused on digital audio signal processing, designing and developing software simulations for audio signals quantification noise modeling, experimental reverb effects, and culminating in an application for the digital audio editing as his final project of studies.

After graduating, he worked for six years in the software consultancy area as an Applications Programmer and Analyst. During this stage, he improved his Object Oriented Programming skills and working methodology, but however, he felt like something was missing.

In 2010, he joined TheGameKitchen, a just born indie videogames development company, as a Generalist Programmer. During this period, he made familiar game engines, such as XNA or Unity3D and developed some audio application prototypes, such as a MOD tracker player for XNA or a scratching application for Windows Phone.

In 2011, he started working at BlitzGamesStudios in the UK as Audio Programmer, developing a successful career in the area of audio programming for videogames. He is responsible for maintaining and improving an existing cross platform end to end audio pipeline, as well as working with third party audio middleware such as FMOD and Wwise.

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